bullying issues.

My younger sister is a freshman in high school and had an eventful week at school this past week. After her second period class one day, she had four of her friends come and tell her that in their last class the TEACHER had been discussing with the class about how she didn’t like my little sister’s personality, and how rude and conceited she was. This then prompted the class to continue talking about her, and the teacher allowed it to go on. What? How is this even remotely ok? It is so frustrating for me to hear this. It is our job to make sure students feel accepted and safe within the classroom, and here is an example of bullying from the teacher! Luckily, administration was contacted and things are getting figured out, but this just infuriates me. It is NEVER ok to talk about other students especially when they are not even present and in such a harmful manner. This now also has lasting effects. My little sister now has NO reason to want to learn in that class; she will never trust that teacher again; she won’t feel like her grade has been fairly given to her; her peers won’t look at her the same way, and for those students who don’t already know her, they may have a bad impression of her. These students in the class also have been sent the message that bullying is tolerated, and encouraged. A teacher who has been given this authority should absolutely NOT be giving these kinds of ideas to kids. Sorry for the rant, but this whole situation bothers me on two different levels: one, as an older sister who hears that her younger sister has been hurt, and two as a future teacher. It is insulting to think that students are going to hear about this and think it is ok to treat people like that.

HIV AIDS

There is so much information that teachers should have, trainings that we should go through, knowledge that would be useful within the classroom setting, and yet there never seems to be enough time or effort put into keeping us all up to date on how to treat different situations. I really enjoyed having the lecture about HIV/AIDS and how that can really impact us as teachers in a classroom setting. Hearing all of the statistics about children who were impacted by HIV/AIDS was really astounding to me and it broke my heart. What was one of the most sobering facts that we were given was the idea of mothers being able to pay around four dollars to keep their children from being infected by the virus at birth so that it cannot be passed along to them, but for so many people, either they do not know that they have HIV/ AIDS or they are not given the information that that treatment is a possibility. So many students could be spared from living with this debilitating disease if this information was made more mainstream. HIV AIDS is preventable. So why is this outbreak still reaching pandemic levels in the United States and worldwide? Before this lecture, I do not think that I even understood the severity and how this continues to be such a problem all over the world. I am really thankful that we now have this information that will most likely be a part of our lives because of the number of people who are directly or indirectly affected by HIV/AIDS. I think that if I had not been given the opportunity to sit in on this lecture, then I would be afraid of the situation if one of my students had HIV/AIDS. So, how can we better prepare ourselves for the real world of pain and disease and sadness that is inevitably going to touch our students?

funding.

Teaching is going to bring its fair share of difficulties and controversial subjects. There are not ever going to be groups of people that you can agree with people on. This kind of came to my attention when we talked about funding for students with disabilities after our class watched the video about the family with their three sons who had severe autism. Funding from the government is such a frustrating issue to discuss because I think that we all agree that if there was enough money, then we would love to be able to provide each child with an education that best allows them to grow and learn to the best of their ability. Unfortunately, that is not the case and it gets even trickier when the money issue impacts people who genuinely need it (like the family in the video). It is such a difficult issue to think about, and try to figure out because there is definitely no easy answer. I do not know how to change the way that people see each of these controversial issues, but I think, as teachers, it is our job to make sure that no matter how each student walks into the classroom, they walk out more confident and with a feeling of being valued. That is as far as we can impact them, and yes, it would be phenomenal if our classroom was the best place for them, and they could reach every goal that they set for themselves, but we also have to deal with the fact that this may not be the case. Even if it is not a disability that causes this lack of connection, it could be something as simple as a student walks in and doesn’t connect with how you teach the class. We can definitely help spread awareness about how to reach different types of students. Its not fair that some students cannot be in their best environment all the time, but we have to do the best we can with what we have.

language

Language is a very important topic for me. As someone who would eventually like to teach ELL classes and spend a great deal of time with students who either come to the United States and do not speak the language at all, or are learning, I think it is the teachers’ duty to teach these children. But most of all, be respectful about this journey as well. From my time translating for the school system, I have been given the opportunity to learn from the parent teacher conferences that go on twice a year. Many of these ELL students have parents who desperately want their children to succeed, and will do anything they can to make a better life a reality for their kids. Do we as teachers to the same thing for these students who are learning English? Do we push them, or do we tend to write them off as SWD simply because it is difficult to teach a fourth grader how to understand multiplication in a language that they are uncomfortable with. It is frustrating. For so many of these students, the drive to learn is there. In a majority of these conferences, the parents inform the teachers how much their child loves to read at home, and loves to talk about what they are learning at school. So in the classroom, how to we continue to push these children in their studies? I want them to understand just as much as they do in class, and outside of class. These children are also useful tools for their parents as well because in many situations, I have seen them serve as a type of stand-in translator. So as we educate these students, we are also helping an entire family find change in the United States. It becomes much more difficult for other languages (I’m only sure of how things function for some Spanish-speaking families). But these kinds of things take time, and simple steps. So what other steps can we take to get the ball rolling?

SWD

Two summers ago, I worked as a day camp counselor for a church near my home. The camp included elementary ages students from kindergarten to kids who were going into the sixth grade that next year. About a month into the program we had a student start. I got a chance to talk with his mom, and she informed me that her son, we’ll call him Max had Asperger’s Syndrome. I was not very educated about this disorder and therefore was not expecting it to be that big of a disturbance on the rest of the campers and their experiences. She told me that it was only a mild case and that the only major thing that would be helpful would be if there was going to be a change in the schedule, I should let him know ahead of time so that he could adjust. That was not necessarily the case. We had multiple incidences over the course of the next 2 weeks in which this student had to be taken home early because he got violent with other campers. One day it was raining outside so we were playing board games in one of the rooms, and he was playing really well with another camper, but when he lost at “Guess Who?” he proceeded to jump on top of the person he lost to and try to pull out his hair. Another day, Max wanted to swing on the tire swing, but there were already students on it. So, he went to the student who was pushing them and bit him so hard that he started to bleed! Unfortunately, Max couldn’t stay with our program after that situation. The part that was so upsetting to me was when we had to confront Max’s mom and let her know that he would not be allowed to come back. She started to cry and told us that this was the 5^thcamp that summer that he was kicked out of. She didn’t know how to handle her own son, and didn’t have the resources to figure out what environment was best for him. As a counselor I was frustrated because she did not inform us accurately of how much this disorder really affected his life, but as a person, I was hurting for her because she didn’t know what to do, and proceeded to tell us that school was a similar situation. I can’t begin to imagine being a teacher and having this happen. Max’s mom just needed information.

respect

I really enjoyed having the panel of students come in and talk to our class about the LGBT club on campus. The most important part of hearing them talk was hearing their own stories. I think that for many people, it is easier to think about the “hot issue” of gay rights as an overall group, but they do not think about individuals. Just like within the classroom, each of our students will be an individual. They will not only be seventh grade language arts students, or first graders or sophomores in high school. Each one of them has a personal story to talk about. Each one is learning about themselves, and other people. Therefore, it is our duty as teachers to stop the injustice that happens in our classroom. One of the students was talking about one of the best things we can do is take control over our own classroom. We cannot tell our students what to think, but if possible, we can help change HOW they think, how they interact with other people; we can teach them about respect. In my opinion, our students need to respect not only us, but also each other to have a functioning classroom. The argument that some people have used “there is no way that we can change what they do outside of class” doesn’t hold up for me. I know that things that my teacher has said have changed my life. Even if it is not every student that walks into our classroom that has a little light bulb go off in their head, we can impact students. It is our decision whether it’s for good, or for bad. I really appreciated the group of students coming in and discussing their stories with our class, and I think it is more discussions and questions that they responded to that can get us thinking about how we can better prepare ourselves for what will be walking into our classrooms, and how we can best respond. More than anything, it is our opportunity to help our students learn, about the class material, and about themselves, and hopefully provide them a space to be themselves.

life outside of school.

I lead a small group of freshmen girls here on campus. And as I was talking with a few of them over the break, they kept talking about school work, and how it was taking a back seat to other issues that were going on in their lives. It made me start thinking, how do we help our students balance their personal lives with the class work that we will give them as they walk into our classrooms? We’ve all had those days when something crazy happened the night before, a break up, a fight with parents, or a friend desperately needed to talk, so you didn’t get as much sleep as you needed. So how can we best prepare our students for college life? When you have so much freedom, and so many opportunities facing you head on, and you have to decide whether to stay up all night watching a “Friends” marathon, or to start writing the essay that is due the next day at 5:00? Some situations we have to be compassionate about what is going on, but at the same time, college professors aren’t nearly as accommodating to hearing that we broke up with our significant other and its still really bothering us, so we didn’t study for the test as much as we should have. Or is that even our place? Is that something that each student has to decide on his or her own? I guess this would pertain mostly to high school, but it is still something that we have to deal with. How about those teachers (we’ve all had them…) that give you so much work that you and all your friends talk about saying “does he/she not realize that we have a life outside of his/her class? There is no way I’ll be able to finish all of this…” While I don’t want to be “that teacher” I still want to challenge my students; I want to be known as a difficult teacher, but you come out of the class knowing a whole lot more than you did when you first came in. But where is the balance?

observation...

This past week, I went and did part of my hours for the end of semester paper. I went and observed in a high school language arts classroom. It was an interesting mix of classes because I observed an inclusion class, a gifted class, and a class that had a few students who were diagnosed with EBD. I really enjoyed my time there because I got the chance to experience how to teach the same material to three different levels of students. The students were just starting to read Of Mice and Men and the teacher started the class by asking the students what they knew about the Great Depression era in U.S. history. I really liked how she did that because it allowed the students to share what they did know, while also giving them valuable background information that they would need in order to better understand the setting and the situations of the characters. I was a little surprised that she had the same lesson plan for all three classes because I would have thought that they would change dramatically for each level of students. Overall, I learned a lot about how to manage classroom settings for different groups of students. While each class was remarkably different, it was still very important that each class covered around the same material. It was also surprising just how different each group was. Once class was loud and another was rather quiet. Each class had an entirely different personality, and I loved that the teacher that I was shadowing had a complete understanding of how to interact with each type of classroom. This helped the classroom to run in a much smoother manner because of her ability to be a different kind of teacher for each classroom, and at times a different teacher to individual students within the same class. This kind of variance was also helpful in the overall atmosphere.

the off-hand comments...

When thinking back on the clubs that were found in my high school, I can honestly say that there was nothing that was supportive or even took notice of anything like the LGBT clubs that I have noticed more on campus. It is so frustrating to me how many students are so permanently upset or hurt because of the hateful comments that people can make in reference to sexual orientation. I think that it’s important that students also see how off-hand comments are also necessary to watch closely. I cannot even begin to say how many times I have heard the expression “that’s so gay…” and after learning so much about the topic of gender, it continues to be frustrating. Another comment that has always bothered me a lot is when students, or people in general say that something is “retarded.” One summer I got to work with campers, some of whom were mentally retarded and that saying really bothers me a lot. I feel like the more that I look at things from the eyes of a future teacher, they are opened to how hurtful comments and discussions can be for students. How can we be openly more accepting of students who face this kind of persistent abuse? I know that I have heard both of those comments multiple times a day since I was in the seventh grade. It’s hurtful, and honestly, those comments also make a student feel uncomfortable in the school environment, which should be a safe haven in my opinion. If students do not feel like their personal lives are protected, how can we expect them to want to learn the material that we are teaching them? I know for me, even a bad fight with my mom made my entire school day difficult to endure. So what about those kids who constantly hear in a derogatory manner, that their sexual orientation is not accepted?

cycle of poverty

When students do not have the needed facilities or equipment it really inhibits them from achieving to their utmost potential. If students walk into a school that cannot completely give them the supplies they need to learn even to the basic standards, it lowers their chances of getting into a college and that in and of itself can lower their chances of getting higher paying jobs. For example, if a junior in high school walks into his or her chemistry class but the classroom is not equipped with beakers or Bunsen burners, how is it that the students can accurately perform experiments, which is the core of chemistry? This only continues the cycle of poverty that people become ensnared in everyday. Another way that the facilities that are housing the students can become a weapon against their own education is if the building is falling apart, how can the student be expected to concentrate on what is being taught? If it is just as cold inside as it is outside during the winter months, how can they take in any sort of information? I know that it would be ridiculously difficult for me in that situation. But if the schools are located in counties with low socio-economic statuses, how can they be expected to pay for such outrageous changes that NEED to be made to these schools? They can’t. They cannot pay for fixing the situation, or changing buildings completely, and in the movie, Corridors of Shame, there was a statement made that any of the money that was coming into those schools could not cover basically anything that was necessary. I can totally see how poverty is a cycle that people are trapped in. School systems all around America are falling into these places as well. So how can we stop this? How can we stop hundreds of kids from worrying about the safety of the school that they will be stepping into every single school day for hours on end? Is this one of those projects that will take one school at a time to fix, or is there a way to help all of the schools in one piece of legislature? I’m glad that the state of South Carolina has at least recognized the need to change. But it is about time that they step up to the plate and act.

obesity in the U.S.

My roommate and I have recently been watching “The Biggest Loser” on television and so I have learned a lot about obesity and the physical effects that it has on people and it breaks my heart that children are being sucked into this lifestyle at such a young age. It is truly a cycle that is very difficult to break, and as I have been watching on “The Biggest Loser” the emotional baggage that accompanies the weight that many of these people put on is huge. The ridicule that most of them went through as kids (because many of them have been overweight all their life) among many other things that they have had to deal with is incredibly sad. To think that children in elementary school are facing this dilemma is terrifying.

So, when we read the article on obesity this week, I saw if from a different perspective because I had just heard stories of some people who have battled their weight for their entire lives, and they shared some of the impacts that it had on them. While I can understand how the percentages are broken down in the article, it makes sense, especially the part about how lower socio-economic level homes have a more difficult time accessing healthier foods because they are more expensive. It was still shocking to see the numbers of just how many children were overweight or obese. I was glad to see that so many states are taking action to fight this luxury disease that is hitting the United States. I was particularly happy to see that the school system as a whole was part of the plan to change this. For so many children who are part of the lower socio-economic status the healthy food that they can access at school may be the only healthy food they get. And while that is frightening, I think it is definitely a step in the right direction.

the biology behind it all.

I really enjoyed the Biology teaching that was done on Friday. I had no idea that race was not overwhelmingly apparent if anyone were to look at our DNA strands. I also thought it was interesting when in the video they mentioned the Human Genome Project that was done in 2000. Its funny and disappointing at the same time how I tend to overlook the impacts that studies like the Human Genome Project actually have on society. I know that I totally take for granted that my generation has access to all of this new information. It’s a matter of fact that so much research has been done on the human gene and how that contributes to race—and I also realize that so much is yet to be discovered, but still. Wow. How will this difference in knowledge affect me in the classroom? Will it become a thing of the past that race is mentioned at all? I thought it was also good that the group that presented mentioned the better option, which is to concentrate more on ethnic background rather than race. When thinking about this, I know that for me, I’d rather be known as an American than just a white female. I think that when it comes to this point we should be able to not only be more accepting of other cultures, but I also think that we will be able to really have a grasp on how to teach multicultural education. If I can appreciate other ethnic backgrounds and cultures, I think I can better equip my own students who have grown up in an accepting environment to other cultures as a whole. Race in and of itself is such a sticky topic because it has to be handled with care, especially in a classroom, but if people began to look at people from an ethnicity perspective, maybe some of the negative connotations that go along with race could be eradicated as well.

race in history

For the group projects, my group was in charge of the history section. When I first figured this out I was kind of excited to start on learning about everything that I didn’t already know about race in history. This is partially because I am a history person, so I enjoy learning about the past and not only what happened but also the motivations of the people in certain instances. Once I had read some of the articles, I came to find that much of the racial history in the United States was focused on the slavery issue. To be honest, it was a little disappointing. We are a nation of many different kinds of people and to see that our nation still talks about race specifically lined up with that horrible, racist way of life is frustrating. I feel like race isn’t often brought up without the stigma of racism right along with it. Why? And not only that, but there are so many other eras in history that race was crucial that do not ever seem to be brought up, the Irish coming to America and the passionate hatred that they fought against, or during World War II when some of the Japanese Americans were put into concentration-like camps because of the intense fear that was traveling around the country. Why don’t these times get talked about as often? Is it just that the White American vs. the Black American is the stereotypical fight that was fought? If so, isn’t that a bit hypocritical of us? Aren’t we fighting against the stereotypes? I just hope that people are listening to the other arguments out there besides the most common story. Not that this fight for freedom is any less significant than the others, because it obviously was a major milestone in not only U.S. history, but also world history. I just think that it is important that people know that racism is not limited to African American history and it looks different than slavery during the Antebellum Period and the Klu Klux Klan. We need to be aware.

When we discussed "Acting White" in class on Friday, it was a really big shock to me. It breaks my heart that for some people success is literally defined for them as off limits and as a "disappointment" to their race. I understand that this is not the accepted truth for everyone out there who is of a minority, but it absolutely blows my mind nonetheless. I don't know how to react to it because I don't know where my part will be in this problem as a teacher. We discussed the different options in class and I agree that for some students addressing it up front when it first happens may be the best way to combat this kind of a situation, but I also agree that it is going to have to be a case by case situation and we'll have to figure it out as we go. Mental blocks like these are going to be difficult. I cannot begin to try and say that I understand where these students are coming from, but when we talked about it in class, I can totally see how this would create a conflict in the individual student because it may not be a conscious decision to "act white" but rather they are attempting to succeed in school. The documentary really opened my eyes to the reality of everything thats going on because they openly discussed it with students. I know that now that my eyes are opened, I will hopefully be able to be more aware within the classroom to this kind of pressure that is harmful. To be honest, I do not think that I would have thought the idea of “acting white” to be a true concern within the school system because it seems like such a foreign concept, but I am very thankful that I now can see this perspective.

diversity...

Diversity in the classroom is such a huge part of the education system that is in place in the United States. I feel like many of the problems that arise not only in school systems but also in the world have to do with the complete lack of respect that people have for one another. While I understand that openly discussing different cultures and differences cannot solve the world's problems, I do believe that being in an environment that fosters respect and openness could start another era of children who want to learn about other places, people and traditions. As teachers I think that it is our place to help students have open minds about what it is that we are teaching them, so that in turn they can continue on to use that thought process in coming to their own conclusions about life and other people. I also think that this is pertinent in the United States because we base ourselves on the ideals and beliefs that are rooted in equality, and justice. Thus, it would be wise for our students, the future leaders of America to have a firm grasp on the cultures that help to make up our “salad bowl” of a country. Let’s face it, the United States is unlike any other country in the world, and part of that is because we have so many cultures and ideas that have been put together. But how just and equal are we really if we don’t give other cultures a chance to be seen? To be heard? It is also important that we realize that a big proportion of the population does not simply identify with one cultural identity, and I believe that along with being American, it is vital that we do what we can to help them take hold of all the sides that make those people who they are. Whether that means American and Venezuelan or Jewish or Korean. The biggest part of education is helping our students figure out who they are so that they can continue to learn about who they want to be and what it is they want to do in life. But it could become difficult to know where they want to go if they are stuck on figuring out where they have been. Multicultural Education and accepting and respecting diversity is crucial if we are going to be able to teach students anything else about the world.